Sonnen and Marquardt both earned “Fight of the Night” honors, while
Thiago earned the “Submission of the Night” bonus and Serra earned the “Knockout of the Night” award.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) learned of the awards Saturday evening at the post-fight press conference, which followed UFC 109 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

It was middleweight Sonnen’s moment in the sun as he faced Marquardt for the division’s next contender slot, but that didn’t mean “The Great” was willing to just give the fight away.

Marquardt had the Las Vegas crowd on the edge of its seat with a bottom-of-the-ninth guillotine choke attempt as Sonnen tried to cap a dominant performance. Sonnen, awash in blood after a Marquardt elbow sliced him open in the first round, proved up to the challenge and hung firm in the fight even as he was reversed and punished with punches at the fight’s end.

Despite Marquardt’s late efforts, the point deficit was too much to overcome. Sonnen took the fight 30-27 scores on all three judges’ cards. The valiant effort earned both fighters an extra check for the effort.

Swick caught Thiago clean with his powerful right hand but walked right into a counterattack that left him struggling to stay conscious.
Thiago made matters worse when he locked in a D’arce choke in a subsequent ground scramble and put Swick to sleep. The move edged out Randy Couture’s main-event win as the evening’s best submission.

Finally, Serra won himself the knockout bonus – and a ticket to eat pasta – by shutting Frank Trigg up with several right hands in the first round of their welterweight bout.

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